Quilts

Friday, November 18, 2016

Some more from my trip, in particular some tapestries.
But before I do ... not too much happening at the moment. While visiting a splendid open garden last week I rolled on the side of my foot - and collapsed in a heap on the ground. After hobbling around for some days I finally found out I had fractured a bone in my foot, so it is now encased in a moonboot for the weeks to come!
Couldn't resist taking this a beautiful teatree (leptospermum) at the Mandalay open garden. It was a mass of flowers.

... and this is a small piece I made this week incorporating one of my linocut prints on some hand dyed fabric

Back to the trip. A couple of modern tapestries that I really liked in Lisbon

and I spotted this depiction of wine making in the Ferreira Winery in Porto - no information about it but the winery was very old

An excursion from the Douro River took us to Lamego, to see an important place of pilgrimage, the Shrine of Our Lady of the Remedies which sits on the hill atop a zigzag stairway of 600 steps. This is the view from the top of the stairway

and this is the Museum in the town at the bottom. It houses a fabulous collection of tapestries made in Brussels in the 1500s

4 large tapestries illustrate the story of King Oedipus from the work of Sophocles - not a common subject matter, so thought to have been commissioned. Made in wool and silk, the work of artist Bernard Van Orley and weaver Pieter Van Aelst

The colours are still quite strong and the detail incredibly fine. These are close ups

These next are part of a series telling the story of Queen Niobe

and a close up

This is the Standard Bearer by Charles Le Brun, circa 1680

and some embroidered vestments

and finally two brilliantly painted urns

Another excursion took us to Mateus Palace built in the 19th century and furnished with Portuguese, French and British items from the 16th, 17th and 18th century. No photos allowed inside, but the gardens were splendid. The house is recognisable as that on the Mateus Rose wine label. They used to make the wine, but no longer do. Wine of that name is still produced, but at another winery and to a different recipe.

Further on in the journey we visited Madrid. Stayed at the Westin Palace hotel which had these amazing skylight ceilings in the lounge/dining area

... this reflectd in my spoon at breakfast

and in the foyer.

I didn't get a good shot of the tapestry on the wall, but saw several in the Royal Palace from a series of 25 produced in the first half of the 18th century by Antonio Gomez de los Rios for the future Ferdinand VI depicting the story of Don Quixote. Once again incredibly detailed

And something newer

To finish now, something completely different, from the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. If you thought platform shoes were modern think again. These are "Chopines", probably Italian and early 17th century.

Pattern pic

Quilty quotes ...

Your art isn’t for everyone. Once you understand this, you’ll have an easier timefinding the people who appreciate your work.Alyson Stanfield

It requires as much ingenuity to adapt a design as to invent one, and the needle worker who can adapt a pattern from another source is half way along the road to being a successful designer. --Ernest Thesiger, Adventures in Embroidery 1941We live in a web of ideas, a fabric of our own making. -- Joseph Chilton Pearce